


Night Terror

by ten9



Series: Heaven Haven [3]
Category: Sanctuary (TV)
Genre: Episode: s02e05 Pavor Nocturnus, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-09-12
Updated: 2011-09-12
Packaged: 2017-10-23 16:16:22
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/252330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ten9/pseuds/ten9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Thanks for all the emails asking where the next installment was. For the 2nd time in 4 years I moved again, so it took me awhile to get back to this. Hope you enjoy.</p><p>(These characters are owned by their respective studios and producers; I make no profit from these stories, they are provided for personal use only and remain the copyright of the author. They may not be reproduced either in whole, in part or posted elsewhere without permission.)</p>
    </blockquote>





	Night Terror

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for all the emails asking where the next installment was. For the 2nd time in 4 years I moved again, so it took me awhile to get back to this. Hope you enjoy.
> 
> (These characters are owned by their respective studios and producers; I make no profit from these stories, they are provided for personal use only and remain the copyright of the author. They may not be reproduced either in whole, in part or posted elsewhere without permission.)

**Heaven Haven**

 **Part 3**

 **Night Terror**

 

 

 

 

 

She woke at a snail's pace, her dulled senses returning with sluggish slowness as her nose crinkled at the odor of dank and dusty decay and she rolled onto her back in an unconscious effort to get away from the smell.

 

She blinked in the dim, diffused light, _What the hell?_ Her brow furrowed in confusion as she twisted and placed her hands on the floor, _Get up Helen…_ she admonished silently when she caught movement in the corner of her eye. She froze, holding her breath and willed her eyes to focus on the oddly glowing mist. She felt her heart race as the mist seemed to approach and she forced herself to remain perfectly still as the glowing mass filled her vision then seemingly evaporated.

 

She released a somewhat shaky breath and placed two fingers on her neck, _Well of course your pulse is rapid_ now _…._ she shook her head in exasperation and took in her surroundings, _What the hell happened?_ She was in the sanctuary, that much was clear, but it looked as though a storm had blown through the hallway she lay in and she looked around in confusion as she stood.

 

She took an internal inventory as she shuffled down the hall, grateful she had no headache and didn’t appear to be injured, _Where’s Janet?_ she wondered, flipping the light switches on and off to no effect. _Where is everyone?_ It wasn’t until she pushed open the door to her and Janet’s office that panic started to set it; it was slightly ajar and she had to push it open for the debris piled behind it. She stepped over the piles of books and papers, carefully negotiating her way over to the desk and picked up the phone. She pressed several buttons to no avail and replaced the receiver with growing anxiety, taking in the devastated surroundings. _Where is Janet?_ she thought worriedly; the office looked as though a hurricane had blown through it; everything appeared coated with a thick layer of dust and looked and smelled as though whatever had happened had occurred years before. She cautiously made her way over to the wide window and peered through the filthy glass. Memories of standing in this exact spot, of holding Janet and taking in one of their favorite views flashed across her mind’s eye, _Can hardly see anything through this now…_ she mused silently, distracted and worried, _Where is she?_ She turned and headed for their bedroom, _Where is Janet?_

 

She searched the sanctuary with increasing panic for signs of life for over an hour but found only abandoned devastation; Janet was nowhere to be found, nor abnormals nor anyone else for that matter … the sanctuary was a deserted ruin. It wasn’t until she finally climbed the stairs to one of the turrets and looked out at the devastated city that encompassed her view that she realized whatever happened effected far more than the sanctuary itself. The city lay in ruin beneath a dark gray sky before her and she hugged herself as she shivered in the cold rain. _Dear God... s_ he turned and ran for the door leading back inside, _dear God…._

 

“JANET?” she called as she hurried down the hallway, no longer caring that calling attention to herself may not be wise, “JANET?” she called as she hurried, “HENRY? WILL?” Her teeth chattered in the cold and she hurried back to the bedroom she shared with Janet and searched by feel in the dark closet until she found her old three quarter-length leather coat.

 

~

 

Steeling herself, she focused on defense and searched the place for a weapon but had to satisfy herself with a knife from the kitchen and headed outside, the vehicles were not drivable and she walked toward the city. After an hour she realized she was wandering aimlessly in the cold gusting wind and unrelenting rain and ducked inside a cluttered alleyway, _For god’s sake Helen, focus,_ she reproached silently, _we need defensive weapons…_ Her eyes scanned the alley, _and food…._ She walked over to a pile of discarded belongings and found a duffle bag among the pile of sodden clothes. _I should have searched the pantry… s_ he berated silently as she emptied the bag of more clothing and a rusty .45 semi-automatic she discarded along with the clothes. Searching the alley she found a tangle of twine and a lightweight metal pole, _I could fashion a serviceable spear with this…._

 

She hunkered beneath some metal stairs and quickly constructed an effective weapon by fitting the handle of the knife in the end of the aluminum tube and used the twine to tie it securely to the end. She kept the bag and moved over to an abandoned car, freezing when a sound made her stop, spear held at the ready. She squinted into the shadows, _Is someone there?_ she asked silently, trying to calm herself, _Because it won’t do to be jumping at the slightest sound…_ she turned cautiously back to the car, _especially if it rains like this nonstop._ The hood wasn’t latched and she pressed her lips together in a thin line as she shoved it up one-handed. Peering at the engine, she yanked at the spark plug wires, thinking they might come in handy. As she pulled them free, she scraped the back of her hand against a sharp metal edge and hissed aloud in pain. _Dammit…_ she silently cursed, regarding the three deep gashes. She shook it at the wrist in an attempt to fling away the pain with the dripping blood and bent to peer inside the car for any useable belongings left behind when she heard a sudden crashing noise in the blowing wind and rain behind her and she whirled toward it, spear held defensively. She squinted into the shadows, her eyes and ears straining when she realized the glowing mist she had seen in the sanctuary had returned. She was about to call to it when she caught movement from the corner of her eye and turned just as a man in dark clothes rushed at her.

 

Crying out, she thrust the homemade weapon but her reflexes were too slow and he took hold of the spear and shoved her hard against the brick wall. He pressed the metal pole against her throat, pinning her and quickly yanked down the scarf wrapped around his neck and lower half of his face and when he opened his mouth, she could see an odd, stinger-like appendage emerge.

 

Helen struggled against the man’s immense strength, turning her face away from the menacing barb just as an electrical pulse of energy struck him from behind and he fell, lying in a motionless heap at her feet.

 

Panting, Helen pushed shakily from the wall and turned toward the two approaching figures attired in hazmat suits, “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?” she yelled in breathless exasperation.

 

She tried to run when she saw one of the figures point his weapon at her and she cried out when the pulse of energy stunned her and she crashed to the ground, unconscious.

 

~

 

Consciousness returned with nauseating slowness and she moaned as they dragged her down a dark corridor. They realized she was coming around and heaved her onto her wobbly feet, silent as they forced her upright in their unforgiving grip. She half-walked, half-fell down the concrete stairs, her rising fear clearing her head considerably when they entered what looked like the cold ruin of a concrete bunker.

 

She was thrown roughly against a tiled surface and she licked her lips, struggling to speak when she felt their gloved hands suddenly pawing at her. They yanked and pulled at her clothes and she cried out,

 

 _“NO!”_ She cried out, terrified at the savage onslaught, _“NO! NO! NO!”_ They tore off her clothes with a ruthless clinical brutality and her cries were pleading as she twisted and writhed futilely in their grasp, _“Please!”_ she cried, utterly terrified at what would follow, _“please… no… no!”_

 

When they had stripped her naked, the shocking onslaught of freezing water replaced the rough, abusive hands. One of them trained a fire hose on her, and the force of the spray blew her against the tiled wall. She screamed and sobbed in agony at the force of the cold water when the other attacker began scrubbing her with a large push broom. She pressed desperately against the wall, unable to evade the hard needle-like bristles. She shouted and cried as they scrubbed her skin raw and her teeth chattered loudly amid her weakening cries when the water suddenly shut off. She fell on the small tiled area, gasping and breathless and she cowered in a tight, violently quaking ball when a noisy scanner was held close to her face and she batted it weakly away.

 

She huddled, not moving until a folded blanket was thrown at her. She struggled to pull it around herself and her other attacker returned with her ruined clothes and threw those at her as well. She snatched at the torn garments and glared into the dark mask of the hazmat suit until both turned and left.

 

Alone, she fumbled with her clothes, not caring they were torn as she struggled into them, shivering violently as she pulled on her slacks and blouse over her wet body, and hissing in pain when she pulled the fabric over skin that had been scraped raw with the stiff broom. Her hands shook so hard she spent minutes forcing her feet back into her shoes and nearly sobbed with relief when, at last, she dragged the blanket around her again and curled fetally on the cold concrete floor.

 

~

 

She could hear footsteps approach and she pulled the rough blanket tightly around her and peered at the doorway and the figure standing in the shadows,

 

“More fun and games…” she muttered and struggled to sit up.

 

“Don’t move…”

 

She heard the low raspy voice and her eyes widened in shock as the figure stepped into the room and the dirty florescent light.

 

 _“Kathleen?”_ she asked in quiet wonder, “Kathleen Clayton?”

 

The tall, tough-looking woman strode across the room and shoved her roughly back down on the floor, “ _I said don’t move!”_ she snarled, pointing a gun at her face.

 

Helen obeyed, crouched in fear but her expression was one of astonishment; it looked like Lady Greystoke, Aeryn Sun’s partner from the Vancouver sanctuary. But this woman’s dark stringy hair had grown past her shoulders, and one of her eyes had a disturbing milky wash to it made even more frightening by the long jagged scar that ran from beneath dark dirty bangs down over the offended eye and over the high cheekbone and ended in the hollowed out cheek. She looked gaunt but clearly possessed a sinewy strength,

 

“What the hell is going on?” Helen asked in a quiet, desperate whisper, “Kathleen… what happened to you?”

 

“Who are you?’ Kathleen took a step back, the gun and ice-cold blue eyes trained on her.

 

“Kathleen,” Helen said in an insistent voice, _“it’s me…”_

 

 _“YOUR NAME!”_ Kathleen roared at her, her one good eye blazing.

 

Helen flinched but held her ground, _“HELEN!”_ she nearly spat, _“MAGNUS… satisfied?”_

 

“I don’t think so…” Kathleen snarled, her lip curling in a sneer, “Helen Magnus died three years ago.”

 

Helen’s brow furrowed in confusion, “What?”

 

“Answer the question.” Kathleen muttered, her gun still trained on Helen’s face.

 

“Kathleen…”

 

 _“WHO ARE YOU?”_ she roared, her patience quickly eroding.

 

“I told you!” Helen snapped, frustration overriding her fear, “I'm Helen Mag…”

Enraged, Kathleen rushed forward, grabbing Helen by her upper arm and dragged her to her feet. Already bruised and sore from being dragged by the men in the hazmat suits, Helen cried out in pain and fought frantically to free herself from the cruel grasp,

 

 _“Let go of me!”_ she yelled in pain and outrage, _“Let go of me! Let go of me!”  
_  
Kathleen released her and extended the gun at her face again, _“Say it again…”_ she hissed in a deadly whisper through tightly clenched teeth, “Say it again...You expect to just show up here after three years dead and think we're just going to play nice? Oh no...” she shook her head slowly from side to side, “You want me to believe this, make it good, because if you'd done your homework you'd know _the real_ Helen Magnus died in the battle for Buenos Aires.”

“What?” Helen shook her head as if to clear it.

“And you'd have an interesting spin on how she survived,” A distinct mocking tone colored Kathleen’s voice, “and right now, you have neither.”

Helen shook her head in rising panic and confusion, “I don't remember any battle.”

“Oh really?’ Kathleen dryly remarked, the unmarred eyebrow arching high in disbelief, “How does this work? Are you a chameleon… a shape-shifter? How did you get this far into the red zone by yourself?”

“I am not an impostor!” Helen shook her fists weakly in frustrated insistence.  
   
 _“HOW?”_ Kathleen roared at her.

  
 _“I woke up in the Sanctuary!”_ Helen shouted back.  
   
Kathleen snorted scornfully, “We don't call it that anymore.”

“I found myself here...” she insisted.

  
“You a telepath, is that it?” Kathleen continued the interrogation, “That's how you know my name.”

  
Helen sagged, “Kathleen, this is insane…”

Kathleen backed up until she stood alongside the man who followed her in, “Prepare a one-hit, medium voltage; this mind-reading bullshit won't fly.” The man behind her pulled something from his pocket and Helen cried out,

“NO!”

“HELEN MAGNUS IS DEAD!” Kathleen roared at her then abruptly snapped her head to one side, listening intently.

 

Helen could hear a pulse weapon firing outside and the man standing next to Kathleen nudged her with his elbow, panic threading his voice,

“We have a breach…”

  
 _“Go!”_ Kathleen nodded curtly, “Secure the perimeter.” He left and she took a menacing step toward Helen, “Did you summon them?” she asked, extending the gun at her a final time,

“What?” Helen could taste bile rising in her throat, “No…” she shook her head desperately, _“please!”_

Kathleen’s nostrils flared briefly and her expression was clearly one of disgust. Helen winced when Kathleen strode forward and shoved her to her knees, tucking the gun into the holster strapped to her thigh she crossed Helen’s wrists behind her and quickly tied them together with a long piece of rough twine.

 

 _“Pray this goes well...”_ she snarled in her ear.

 

Helen shook in her bonds as she heard the tall woman leave the room and run up the stairs. She waited for the sound to fade then struggled shakily to her feet. She pressed her lips tightly together against the pain when she slid down the wall to retrieve her coat left near the doorway and clutched it in numb fingers. When she stood, she noticed it had been draped over an ammo bag and she felt her thighs trembling with effort as she slid back down to grab it too. _We can’t be far from the alley…_ she thought as she eased up the stairs, sliding along the handrail for support and dragging her coat and the bag behind her, _I need to find the knife and get back to the sanctuary…_

~

 

She could hear Kathleen and her men emitting what sounded like electrical pulse weapons fire, she guessed against more creatures like had attacked her. It took her nearly an hour to leave the area undetected and find the alley and her makeshift spear. The body of the man or creature that attacked her still lay where he fell and she ran from the area, her hands still bound behind her until she reached the sanctuary. She squatted, huddled in its shadow and used the knife tied on the end of the aluminum rod to free herself. She tried to rise but once she had restored proper circulation in her arms, pain flamed across her shoulders and radiated down both bruised arms and into her throbbing hands and she slid down the sanctuary’s stone wall and onto her knees, sobbing quietly. _Dear god, Janet…_ she thought brokenly, _where are you?_

 

She pressed her cheek against the cold damp stone and let herself cry until the pain ebbed somewhat and she slumped exhaustedly on the cold ground, pulling her coat to her and struggled painfully into it. Shivering, she pawed through the contents of the ammo bag and found what looked like one of Henry’s energy weapons only larger, _Likely a pulse energy weapon,_ she mused, _and apparently lethal if this is what they used on that creature lying dead in the alley._ She withdrew a flashlight; among the other useful items she found was a small first aid kit. She pulled a length of fairly clean looking cloth and wrapped it around her hand, covering the gashes in an effort to prevent further bacteria from entering the wounds and causing an infection she would likely have no way of fighting. Feeling more confident, she slung the bag over her shoulder and headed into the main house.

 

She was making her way cautiously down a dark hall towards the kitchen when a small figure rushed out of the shadows. Helen sensed more than saw the weapon swinging at her and she simultaneously ducked and blocked, still wincing when she felt the short broom or mop handle strike her across her very sore upper arm.

 

“DIE!”

 

She heard just as she spun and pointed her weapon at a young girl,

 

“Please don’t kill me!”

 

Her eyebrows arched in surprise at the sight of the filthy young girl. Looking into a pair large fearful brown eyes framed by a long tangled mop of filthy brown hair, Helen guessed she was about ten years old, “Oh…” she stammered, “hello…” she lowered her weapon and hooked a thumb over her shoulder, “I… was just going to look for something to eat… care to join me?’ The girl was silent. “I’m Helen…” she held out her hand but the girl only backed away. “Very well then…” she sighed and shrugged, “this is my house you’re in… so if you’re hungry follow me.”

 

The girl followed as Helen made her way into the kitchen and rooted in the back of the pantry for anything edible she could find. There were a few cans of baked beans on a low shelf and she dropped them into her ammo bag then rooted around in a drawer for some spoons and handed the child one of each. “I can heat that if you want to wait until I can st…” her voice faded as the girl snatched the spoon and beans from her and pulled the ring on the pop-top can, “Although why should you…” she added softly. “I’m going up to my office to light a fire and warm up... if you’d care to come along.” The girl was unresponsive and she sighed and left the room, quirking an eyebrow when she heard the girl shuffling along behind her and loudly slurping the cold baked beans from the can.

 

Once in the office she cleared the fireplace of debris and built a fire from ancient-looking wood and kindling left in the log rack,

 

“You know,” her tone was conversational as she looked over her shoulder at the girl on the couch, “Proper etiquette would be to offer _your_ name in return.” The child was still unresponsive and Helen sighed resignedly and lit the fire, “I'll rig up some perimeter alarms,” she said, leaning tiredly on the mantle for support when she rose, “probably quite rudimentary but they should give us ample warning if we have any visitors…”

 

The girl looked at her but was silent.

“And I'll… see what else I can find.” Helen turned to leave when she heard the low, rough whisper,

 _“Jessica…”_

Helen turned slowly, afraid moving too fast would make her bolt, “Jessica?”

“Mitchell…” came the somewhat stronger reply.

“And what were you doing down there by yourself, Jessica Mitchell?” Helen asked as she pulled her coat tightly around her against the cold and sat on the opposite end of the couch.

“What were _you_ doing down there?” the girl retorted softly, scooping out the last of the beans.

“Well,” Helen shrugged, “It is _my_ house,” she reminded her, “although… shelter, mainly. I suppose I was looking for something to help me understand all of this.”

“There's nothing out there but them…” she said in a quiet fearful hush.

Helen sighed is assent, “Your parents… are they...” she saw the haunted look in the child’s eyes and stopped; “Sorry…” she closed her eyes briefly, thinking of Janet, “How long have you been on your own?

“I don't know...” She shrugged thin shoulders, the seeming indifferent tone returning to her voice, “It's easier to keep moving when you're by yourself.”

“Have you seen anyone else since you’ve been here? A woman? Shorter than me… her name is…” Jessica solemnly shook her head from side to side,

 

“Who is she?” the child asked fearfully.

 

Helen rose from the couch, “Someone I love…” she sighed, feeling defeated, “Alright then, try and get some rest.” She walked over to her desk to retrieve the pulse weapon, “I'll be close by.”

“They'll find us, you know...”

 

She heard the girls’ voice, aged beyond her years, as she left the couch and came to stand next to her,

 

“They always do… we shouldn't stay here.”

Helen’s brows arched as she looked down at her, “Where else should we go?”

~

 

Jessica followed Helen silently as she prowled the sanctuary and garages looking for a power source to connect to the computer in her office. She eventually fell asleep on the couch while Helen connected a car battery to her workstation and powered it up.

 

Her eyes scanned the screen and stopped on the icon for a video file on the desktop, she clicked it open and watched herself in a white labcoat, staring out at her from the monitor,

  
 _“The outbreak is spreading at an alarming rate… we cannot contain the impact….”_

The video faded, static white noise popping in and out as she spoke,

 _“The city is now evacuated. Our last stand is to hold on to the Sanctuary….”_

 

Static flooded the screen again, and when the video returned Helen was wearing a black leather jacket, her features haggard and her voice sounded as devastated as the events she described;

 

 _“Hearing this; we will abandon the last Sanctuary. All efforts to find a cure for this plague have failed. Our only hope is to find safe ground to protect what… few of us remain….”_

 

She watched, shocked as the video and audio faded in and out as the Helen on the monitor shook her head in sorrow, her eyes brimming,

 

 _“I'm so sorry… for everything.”  
_  
Helen shook her head in confusion as static scrambled the screen and the computer abruptly lost power and shut down. _Why can’t I remember any of this?_ she thought desperately when she heard a sudden clattering in the distance and picked up the pulse weapon. Jessica still slept and she made her way into the hallway as quickly and as quietly as she could, her ears straining to catch the least sound as she navigated the hallway. She ducked around a corner when she heard the sound of approaching footsteps and holding the weapon at the ready, tripped the intruder when she saw the boot round the corner. The figure stumbled and tumbled to the floor, dropping a weapon like Helen’s and she kicked it way,

 

“Don’t move!”

“Relax,” Kathleen rolled onto her back, grunting in pain and clutching her abdomen, “I'm not here to start anything.”

 

Helen kept her weapon trained on the fallen woman “Well?’ she asked expectantly, “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Bleeding…” Kathleen offered in a tight voice.

“What happened?”

Kathleen gritted her teeth and grunting softly, dragged herself across the hallway until she could sit propped against the wall, “What do you think?” she coughed weakly, “More palefaces… but I was the only one who made it out this time.”

Helen lowered her weapon and squatted next to her, “How did you get in here? I checked every access point.”

  
Kathleen snorted, if humorlessly, “I’ve been here before you know, I broke in through the old river gate, but don't worry, I locked it behind me.”

Helen cautiously pulled the torn blood-soaked fabric from the wound on Kathleen’s abdomen and she cried out,

“It's just shrapnel,” she gasped, “you can patch it up later.”

Helen gave her a look of exhausted exasperation, “Why should I, after the reception you gave me?”

Kathleen just smiled crookedly at her and Helen shrugged, “Come on then, let's get you sorted…” she stood and held out her hand.

 

Jessica was awake when she helped her back to her office, and she watched with obvious distrust as Kathleen grunted in pain and collapsed onto the far end of the couch.

 

Kathleen caught the child’s baleful glare and muttered, “Scare ya’?”

 

“Only when I saw your face…” Jessica retorted scornfully.

 

“Behave!” Helen scolded and pulled some pads of cloth from the first aid kit on her desk, “Both of you.” She pulled a length that looked long enough to tie around Kathleen’s waist and added, “It may be a shambles, but this is still my house…”

 

“Ahh…” Kathleen snorted painfully, “so that’s where my bag and first aid kit went.”

 

Helen shrugged, “It’s not like you had much in there.”

 

“It’s not like we have much of anything anymore.” Kathleen shot back tartly.

 

Helen knelt between Kathleen’s spread knees and inspected her wound, she could feel a hard piece of metal with her fingers, “I can feel it,” she looked up at her uncertainly, “I think it’s small and I can probably just pull it out but I don’t have any anesthetic…”

 

“No one does…” Kathleen looked down her nose at her, “Go ahead….”

 

Helen’s brows arched high on her forehead but she carefully probed in the torn bloody flesh for an edge to the shrapnel. Kathleen’s eyes squeezed shut and quiet cries of pain escaped her until Helen gingerly worked the small jagged piece of metal free,

 

 _“Oh yes!”_ she grunted, gasping, “Jesus that feels… so much better!”

 

Helen rose and tossed the bloody piece of metal into the fire; “Really?” she grabbed a rag from her desk and wiped her hands before returning to pack Kathleen’s wound and tie the long length of cloth around her, checking to make sure it was snug but not too tight.

 

Kathleen relaxed, if marginally as she looked down into Helen’s face, “Oh yeah,” she said quietly, “much.”

 

Helen did a small double take when she looked up briefly into Kathleen’s darkly blue eyes, not sure what she saw there. She rose stiffly and returned to her chair, feeling somewhat safer behind her desk. Kathleen watched her retreating form and chuckled softly in amusement, staring at her.

 

Uncomfortable, Helen returned her gaze, “What?”

 

Pressing her hand over her wound, she rose painfully from the couch and shrugged. She grabbed a book left on the couch and began tearing pages from it, “Three years ago,” she began softly in her British accent so like Helen’s, “the air force dropped a daisy cutter on an Argentine neighborhood that you were trying to evacuate.” She tossed the torn pages onto the fire and her voice faded briefly as she stared into the flames. A long moment passed then she threw the book onto the burning logs with the flick of her wrist, “Fifteen thousand people were vaporized,” she continued, turning back to her, “including you, at ground zero.’ She slowly crossed the room on worn boots until she stood before Helen’s desk, “And yet… suddenly, here you are,” her voice had become a quiet, deadly murmur, “alive and well…. You were gone, Magnus, without a trace…”  
   
“I can't explain it….” Helen shook her head helplessly.

 _“Try...”_ the blue eyes glared at her. _  
_  
“I don't know…” Helen’s eyes were desperate as she looked up at her, “I-I woke up here… with no memory of anything, I mean… you, those creatures…. Buenos Aires?” she shook her head in bemusement, “I...”

Kathleen’s eyes narrowed and she pressed her lips into a thin line, nodding, “Well… you look good.” She cocked her head to one side, regarding her, “You must have been holed up someplace quite nice…. You look like you've had... food… shelter, sunlight…. Was there a colony I didn't know about?”

Helen shook her head again, “The last thing I recall...”

 _“Was what?”_ the edge returned to Kathleen’s voice.

Helen closed her eyes briefly, thinking, “A mission… Central America, I…” her voice cracked, “Why can't I remember anything since then? It's like this is all a dream….”

Kathleen turned and wandered back to the fireplace, trying to quell her rising anger while Helen’s voice trailed away and for a long minute all that could be heard was the crackling of the burning logs until finally, “Everything is gone...” Kathleen said in a curiously flat voice, “Everything we built, is gone….” she turned back to her, her voice suddenly rising, “EVERYONE WE EVER CARED ABOUT IS DEAD!” she finished in a shout, making Helen jump, “DOES THIS LOOK LIKE A DREAM?”

Helen locked her eyes on Kathleen’s, “What happened to you, Kathleen?” she asked quietly; this highly educated and intelligent woman that stood before her, a member of the aristocracy and loving partner of Aeryn Sun was a now a battle-hardened warrior and she shook her head in wonder and not a little fear.

 

Kathleen stared at her for a long, hard minute until her gaze shifted and she slowly left the room. Helen gave Jessica what she hoped was a reassuring smile and followed the tall woman into the hallway.

 

Suddenly weary, Kathleen shambled down the hall only a few yards before sliding down a wall and sitting heavily on the floor, “It was more than just a plague.” She sniffed and cleared her throat, “It was a new kind of species; cannibalistic, mindless… soulless. At first we tried containment, treatment….”

  
“But it wasn't natural evolution.” Helen offered as she sat next to her, leaning against the wall.

“There were rampant infection rates,” Kathleen murmured in a low, raspy voice, “quick mutation; within a year, millions had turned. It affected both humans and abnormals and there were just too many to fight,” her head shook slowly from side to side at the memory, “too powerful. They fed on anything alive, and if they drew blood, if you survived the attack…”

“You changed…” Helen added.

Kathleen nodded, “Five, six hours… a day at most, and then you were one of them; infected.”

“We never found the point of origin? There had to have been a patient zero.”

Kathleen shook her head, “The infection spread too quickly to find the source. We did everything we could to slow it… nothing worked. After a while, you were euthanizing more than you treated. Governments evacuated cities… and we abandoned the sanctuaries.” She shook her head, staring distantly down the dark hallway, “Global panic…” she shut her eyes against the violent images that flashed before her, “Then they started deploying tactical nukes…”

Helen swallowed the bile rising in her throat, “How many are left?”

“Uninfected?” she shrugged, “a hundred thousand worldwide… maybe. I set up a colony in the arctic. There's a few thousand living there on remote islands while we've been fighting these creatures. We're part of a larger militia, but...” she sighed, “but we've been whittled down one by one… just trying to save the last of the last. It's over,” she turned brimming eyes to her, “it has been for a long time.”

Helen bit her trembling lips and shook her head in frustration, “Why can't I remember any of this?” 

A soft expression spread slowly over Kathleen’s features, “You must've got out somehow, been in a colony suffering from amnesia, battle fatigue…”

“No…” Helen protested softly, _I couldn’t just forget where Janet is… what happened to her…_ “No,” she slammed her eyes closed against the thought, “that's not it. There is a _reason_ I came back here _now_ …” Tears filled her eyes and Kathleen turned to her,

 

“Hey…” she murmured softly, clasping Helen’s chin in a dirty thumb and forefinger and turned her face to hers, “there’s nothing to be done…” she whispered, “not anymore.” and placed her lips on Helen’s.

 

Shocked, Helen didn’t respond until she felt Kathleen’s tongue pressing inside her mouth, “M-n-no...” she pulled away, “I’m sorry, Kathleen…” she shook her head miserably, “I’m sorry, I can’t.”

 

“Yeah…” Kathleen nodded, understanding, “If you can’t remember then I guess it’s still too soon for you…”

Jessica suddenly lurched into the hallway, “Helen?” she called to her, “I don't feel so...” she mumbled and crumpled to the floor.

Both women scrambled to their feet but Kathleen grabbed at her arm, stopping her, _“Don't touch her!”_ she rasped, _“She's infected!”_ She yanked Helen’s arm so she faced her, her tone accusing, “You didn't check her?”

  
“I didn't know!”

Kathleen pulled the gun from the holster strapped to her thigh and took aim at the fallen girl as Helen ran to block her,

 

“NO!”

Kathleen shook her head determinedly and cocked the gun, “She's dead already.”

“You said we have five hours, maybe more…. Please, help me understand this.”

“Magnus,” Kathleen spoke slowly, “if she turns, they'll come.”

“Then I suggest you leave,” Helen held her ground, “because I will not let you shoot this girl.”

~

 

They placed Jessica in a restraint chair in one of the isolation rooms off the main lab and Kathleen stood behind Helen and regarded both her and the moaning girl behind the protective glass beyond. She listened as Helen played part of the video log she managed to restore from the hard drive in her office,

 

 _“Unfortunately, the elixir from the vial seems to have had no effect on me except a spike in my immunoglobulin levels. Repeated attempts to bring them back down into normal range have failed.”_

  
“This is all a very bad idea.” Kathleen sighed resignedly, “Which means you really must be you.”  She stared down at the image of Helen Magnus in a white labcoat, “Why did you come here?” she asked quietly, “So you could retrace ground you've already covered?”

“I don't have the right equipment to run the proper blood tests,” Helen stared at the screen, furiously tapping the keys, “but I should be able to cross-reference Jessica's symptoms with entries from my previous research… look for some sort of deviation.”

While she spoke Kathleen slowly paced the room, her ears straining to hear any indications that the sanctuary had been breached since the girl started to turn, “Deviations?” she repeated, her voice rising in exasperation, “They've become the dominant species on the planet… they're like locusts that turn other life forms into more locusts.”

“But the contagion had to have started somewhere.” Helen insisted, “Someone must have been the first to contract it.”

Kathleen rolled her eyes and crossed the room to stand in front of her, “Let's do the time warp _again_ : typhus, smallpox, cholera, yellow fever, scarlet fever, malaria,” she ticked off the diseases on one hand, “they all bear _no relation_ to this disease... _have you caught up yet?”_ she peered down into Helen’s upturned face, her voice rising.

Helen stood her ground, “There _has_ to be evidence of this disease somewhere in the past. _It cannot have come out of nowhere.”_

 __

“We've done this dance…” Kathleen lowered her voice, “You tried cures, treatments… for years, and nothing worked. The contagion mutates; it wins. Humans… are extinct.”

“We're not…” Helen looked earnestly at her, “You and me,” she said softly, “we're alive... Isn't that a reason for hope?”

“Reason?” Kathleen snorted contemptuously, “There is no reason for _anything_ anymore. We know how we're dying, but why it's happening? What we did to deserve this, _who the fuck knows?_

  
“This doesn't make any sense.” Helen tried to reason with her, “There has to be a way to stop it…”

 _“You've already done this!”_ Kathleen shouted, shaking her fist in exasperation, “You tried every single waking moment until the very end…”

“You kept going; you're still fighting.”

Kathleen suddenly looked deflated, “Life without purpose isn't life…” she muttered tiredly, her gaze again staring distantly into darkness, “I learned that from Aeryn… and you.”

Cautiously, Helen inched forward and touched her arm, “I'm sorry I disappeared.”

Both women started when they heard a sudden clattering down the hall,

“Company's here.” Kathleen said in a low voice, “I'll go head them off at the access tunnels. You stay here.”

The infected creatures had infiltrated the sanctuary and Kathleen ran for the tunnels. Helen stood in the doorway, watching the hall, _There’s more than one access to this level,_ she thought anxiously, pulse weapon held at the ready, _Dear Janet…_ she thought helplessly, _my love… where are you?_ She thought she could hear Kathleen’s pulse weapons fire distantly when three of the creatures suddenly appeared around a corner and ran straight toward her. She ran forward, blasting as she ran, taking down all three but kept running when she saw two more running down the far end of the corridor, _They must be heading for the other entrance to iso rooms_. When she ran back into the section where Jessica was she shot one of the creatures banging his fists against the glass partition and whirled, catching another behind her in the face then struck him again as he fell and taking aim, quickly finished him off with the pulse weapon.

 **~**

Kathleen dispatched the six that entered via the access tunnels with a practiced ease, and after rummaging around for one last bit of explosive C4 in her ammo bag, she returned to the tunnels and sealed them off at the point where the stone walls were the weakest and sure to collapse. While she was gone, Helen found a file in one of the labs and she bent over a small stack of pictures and peered at them intently in the candlelight. They were pictures of people, post mortem. She turned the pictures one by one; most were of people she did not know, and abnormals she did. _Pictures of the dead…_ her heart ached more acutely with each until she looked down into the open sightless eyes of a lycanthrope she had rescued as a young boy,

 _“_ _Henry...”_ she whispered mournfully. A movement caught her eye and she froze; the strange mist she had seen earlier in the alley suddenly appeared and she watched as it again approached, the glowing wisps and tendrils seemingly reaching out to her when Kathleen entered the room carrying car batteries and when Helen blinked, the mist was gone.

  
“These were in a couple of storerooms on the garage level I missed when we evacuated,” she sighed as she dropped them on the worktable, “though we were in kind of a rush at the time…” she added and began connecting them to Helen’s workstation. “Hopefully these will keep you in computerland for a while. Oh and,” she turned to her, “I hate to break this to you, but the Internet's down, and has been for about five years.”

Helen nodded absently, “I'll survive.”

Kathleen gave her a look and added, “More of them will be coming.”

“Defenses?”

“Nonexistent,” Kathleen said as she worked, “it's just me and you against thousands of inhuman cannibals.”

“Well, then we should be fine.” She glanced at Kathleen’s profile and mumbled, “I imagine there was a time you would have at least smiled at that.”

“Yes,” Kathleen said distractedly as she stripped insulation from a wire with her knife, “I imagine there was.”

“Central America,” Helen looked back down at the file, “is that where the outbreak started?” she mused aloud, “Could that have been ground zero for the contagion?”

Kathleen’s brow furrowed, “No, I think all evidence pointed to the Pacific Northwest, although we could never prove it.”

“Honduras.” Helen shook her head thoughtfully, “It figures into this somehow…”

“Why?”

“I-I don't know, it has to be in my personal log… there's something important that I'm missing.” She shook her head in exasperation, “I'll be damned if I know what it is.”

“Magnus,” Kathleen looked at her while she worked, “what are you doing with this girl?”

“I have a theory I'd like to test; I found some anticoagulants and older blood thinners in the storeroom.”

“The old dialysis-on-the-fly trick,” Kathleen nodded, “been there, done that.”

“I know, I saw the notes, but we've also never had such an early jump on the infection. All the other subjects were either long infected or completely turned. Jessica's only been showing symptoms for less than a couple of hours. It's much earlier in the transformation process.”

“Bring on the Hail Mary.” Kathleen muttered.

“Kathleen…” Helen stared down at the file and licked her lips, “I’m sorry…” she closed her eyes briefly, steeling herself, “I need to know…”

 

Kathleen kept working but her eyes were soft when she looked at her, “Finally ready to hear what happened to the others?”

 

“Yes,” Helen nodded, feeling her stomach twist and her heart thud painfully, _“p-please…”_ she whispered, staring fixedly down at the table.

  
Kathleen stopped working and looked at her solemnly, “Henry Foss made weapons for the government until it finally fell. He kept finding newer, better ways to stop them, to kill them, until his number finally came up.”

“I saw the photo.” Helen nodded sadly.

“Your simian-man refused to leave after we pulled up stakes, even though there was nothing here left to protect…. I'm guessing he took more than a few with him when he finally went.” She sighed heavily, “Will and Kate took off together to fight with a group in the south a year later… we never heard from them again.”

“And…  Aeryn?”

Kathleen looked down at the wires she had been stripping and blinked several times, “She died…in the fighting.” She cleared her throat and nodded awkwardly, “She was a good fighter, a good leader…. She flew a tactical nuke for drop into a high-density infection area but the hydraulics went out on her helo and she…” Kathleen’s voice wavered and her chin trembled, “she took most of Boston out with her in the crash that… that detonated the nuke.” Her voice faded and after a long moment of silence passed she finally looked at Helen with brimming eyes.

“And Janet?” Helen asked, her voice breaking.

 

“And Janet…” Kathleen murmured softly, compassion coloring her voice, “Janet did the same, she drove a tactical nuke into a high infection area in Philadelphia and set it off...” she stopped when she saw the twin tears slip from Helen’s eyes and slip down her cheeks, leaving dirty streaks on her face. “That was two weeks after we thought you were dead.”

 

A small sob erupted from Helen’s trembling lips that she covered with her bandaged hand and covered her eyes with the other. Kathleen pulled her into her arms and nodded, unable to say more as tears she had not allowed herself to shed in years spilled from her eyes. Helen sagged against her and wept; the one thing she had feared the most, that she had refused to allow herself to contemplate, was true. Janet was dead. Anguished cries tore from her throat and she howled her loss into Kathleen’s chest.

~

  
Jessica gasped and panted wildly while Helen injected more medication into her IV line.

“She's been in v-tach for more than an hour.” Helen muttered, frustrated, “Pulse is off the charts.”

  
Kathleen watched, her arms folded over her chest, “There's a reason we don't let it run its course, it's not a pretty sight.”

“Just give it some time.” Helen mumbled and left the enclosure.

“I’ve heard that before.” Kathleen said and followed her out of the isolation unit and down the hall, “Look, I respect your trying to save this girl; it's even rather nostalgic, but come on, this is all just more stuff for the archaeologists to find in the future after we're long gone...” She snorted at herself, “if anyone survives.”

Helen stopped so abruptly Kathleen nearly ran into her, “Magnus? “

“Eastern Honduras,” she turned, excited and reversed direction, “ten years ago; I remember…”

“What about it?” Kathleen asked, following.

“I went there looking for the tomb of Pacal the second, a Mayan king from the late dynasty.”

“So?”

“It wasn't long after Ashley had died. I...I was tired of outliving people I loved. I wanted to find a cure for my longevity so I could grow old with Janet.”

“In a Mayan tomb…” Kathleen’s voice sounded disbelieving and she sighed.

 

“I'd been researching ancient myths and legends. How certain cultures had claimed to have found a way to shorten time, to manipulate it. The Mayan kings were abnormals who aged very slowly, like I do. The kings wanted a release from their advanced age and there was evidence that they'd developed an elixir capable of giving them a normal human lifespan.”

“So you were looking for a way to grow old. What does that have to do with the end of everything?”

“It doesn't, except that the Mayan people died out at an incredibly rapid pace, their empire fell within several decades and entire sections of their population simply disappeared, gone without a trace; no one knows why.”

“You think that the contagion that killed off the intelligent life on this planet is the same one that wiped out the Mayans?”Kathleen folded her arms across her chest, “That's not possible; there'd be evidence…”

“The virus can mutate, it is entirely possible.”

“No.” Kathleen shook her head, feeling her patience eroding yet again.

  
“Kathleen, please,” Helen stepped in front of her, “help me go further with this. Tell me where things stood before the end. Was there anything I had tried that had come close, anything remotely hopeful?

“Well,” Kathleen sputtered, “we certainly didn't talk about the goddamn Mayans!”

Jessica suddenly screamed and began to gag and convulse.

  
“Jessica!” Helen rushed into the enclosure, Kathleen right behind her and when they entered the girl began foaming at the mouth. Her head rocked back on her small shoulders and her mouth opened wide as the stinger-like appendage emerged, making Kathleen pull the gun from her holster

“Kathleen,” Helen made a grab for the gun, “NO!”

Kathleen shot off the appendage and the glass partition behind her exploded, blowing shattered glass into the room beyond, “She was calling to them!” Kathleen shouted and grabbing Helen by the wrist, dragged her from the isolation unit.

~

  
They stood side by side on the northern turret, looking down at dozens of the creatures as they mindlessly swarmed inside the sanctuary courtyard below,

“We need to seal off any section we can't hold,” Helen raised her voice to be heard over the howling wind and rain, “fall back to a safe position and wait for them to leave.”

Kathleen nodded, “I'll help out as long as I can.”

“We can do this, Kathleen,” Helen turned to her, “I'm sure you've been through worse.”

“I haven't, actually, that last skirmish didn't go so well for me…” she pulled her tank top and jacket away from her shoulder, revealing a brackish lesion. “We kill as many as possible,” she said, her voice turning hard, “and then when it's my turn, you don't hesitate, _not for one second_.”

~

 

They made it to the main lab, Helen still doggedly carrying her hard drive with her and Kathleen barricaded the door,

  
“Barricade yourself in here,” Kathleen cocked an ear to the door, listening to the dull thudding of the creatures banging on the other side, “don't let anyone in, especially me.”

“I just,” Helen mumbled, hooking up the car batteries they left earlier to the workstation, “need some…”

  
“Time, I know here...” Kathleen handed over her gun, “take this.”

The cylinder was open and Helen could see there was only one bullet, “Kathleen…”

 

Kathleen shrugged, resting the larger pulse weapon on her shoulder, “I only lasted this long because I promised Aeryn I would fight as long as I could.” She sighed and headed for the door, “But really, more than anything I just want to be with her again,” she turned back for one last look and gave her a lopsided grin, “and soon I will be.”

Helen followed, holding her weapon at the ready but the creatures had evidently moved down the corridor and Kathleen was able to slip out the door and Helen secured it behind her,

 

“God speed…” she murmured and hurried back to the workstation, wiping her eyes with one hand and powering up the computer with the other.

  
 _I need to go back further, the Honduras mission..._ She scrolled hurriedly through the files and clicked one open; the video was blurry and interrupted by static and she squinted at the image of herself,

 _“From the Mayan tomb of King Pacal… I am hopeful about the one artifact I found there that matched the legends…. The markings suggest an unorthodox relationship to time, the ability to manipulate it at will…via the protection of mystic guardians….  All of this makes me hopeful that the contents of this vial are what allowed king Pacal to die within a normal lifespan…A full chemical breakdown and diagnostic of the fluid inside should reveal its properties.”  
_  
Loud banging on the fortified doors made Helen jump and she bent closer to the screen, willing the video image of herself to speak faster,

 

 _“Seven years and nine months since the outbreak began… My unique physiology seems to have prevented any outward symptoms… The contagion mutates at such speed I'm not sure I can analyze it fast enough… There's still no way to control the immunoglobulin spikes in the blood of those infected.”_

 

“Immunoglobulin...” Helen muttered and glanced worriedly at the dust that billowed from the weakening doors as the creatures without battered them unrelentingly.

 _“Unfortunately, the elixir from the vial seems to have had no effect on me except a spike in my immunoglobulin levels. Repeated attempts to bring them back down into normal range…”_

“Oh my god…” The glowing mist returned, swirling around her and Helen’s already pale face paled even further as understanding filled her at last, “It was the artifact itself… _it_ held the contagion….” Horror suffused her features, _“I was patient zero.”_ The doors began to crumble as the pounding increased and Helen’s voice broke in despair, “I caused this,” tears spilled from her eyes, _“I caused all of this.”_

 

The doors broke from their hinges and fell on the floor in a loud boom and as dozens of the creatures flooded the lab, Helen blinked and suddenly found herself in another place.

She looked down at her hands in befuddlement at the stone jar she held, topped with the carved head of King Pacal. She blinked several times, struggling to understand where she was, _I’m in a tomb…_ she thought, wonderingly when she saw the glowing mist before her, _I found the tomb of King Pacal…_

The strange mist seemed to coalesce and take a humanlike form before her, looking to Helen different but not unlike the glowing figure in Chartres, “Dear God…” she looked from the artifact she held in her hands to the amorphous figure hovering before her, “You're keeping it hidden from the world… guarding it.”

The glowing mist-like figure nodded.

  
“But you won't let me destroy it, will you?”

The head of the glowing mist slowly shook in the negative from side to side.

  
Helen turned and placed the stone container back into the carved niche she had taken it from, “Is it safe here?” she asked in a quiet voice. The figure firmly nodded in the affirmative and Helen could feel tears fill her eyes, “Thank you…” her voice broke and she left the darkened tomb, going back the way she came.

***

Helen entered the sanctuary largely unnoticed and wearily entered the office she shared with Janet. She breathed carefully in through her nose and out through her mouth in an effort to contain the emotions that threatened to overwhelm her since her beloved sanctuary came into view from the window of the cab. _Calm down…_ she told herself firmly; _of course everything looks exactly the same… stop being silly._ She grimaced when she slung the backpack from her shoulder and dropped it on a chair. Stopping by the desk, she lifted one of her favorite pictures, of a grinning Janet and Ashley dressed in fishing waders, their arms slung around one another. A trembling smile graced her lips until she caught sight of the bandage still wrapped around her hand.

 

She had walked through the jungle back to her guide, a smiling young man who worked at the Buenos Aires sanctuary and who drove her back to the airstrip where her private plane waited.

Knowing she was too weary to pilot the aircraft safely, she waved tiredly at the pilot who accompanied her, letting him fly her home. More than eighteen hours had passed and Helen had spent most of them staring out the windows of either the Land Rover or the plane or the taxi, numb from an experience she still wasn’t sure ever happened.

 

“Hey!” Janet ebulliently greeted her, “Welcome home!”

 

Helen quickly put the framed photo back on the desk and turned, scooping the smaller woman in a fierce hug. Janet emitted a grunting sound and snorted in amusement, hugging Helen back with equal fierceness until she realized Helen was crying.

 

“Helen?” Janet eased from her grasp, sliding down her body until her feet again touched the floor; “Hey...” she called softly, stroking the crumpled face in soft hands, “What’s wrong?”

 

Helen laughed in spite of the tears that spilled from her eyes, “Nothing…” she sniffed and clasped the elegant hands and pressed them to her lips, kissing them.

 

Janet noted the bandaged hand, “Helen,” she breathed, anxiety coloring her tone, “Helen what happened? Are you hu…”

 

Helen pulled her into shaking arms and kissed her soundly until both women gasped for air and Helen’s knees buckled and she sat rather abruptly on the floor, forcing Janet to sit on her lap, straddling her. Janet could feel her heart thud fearfully in her chest and she clasped Helen’s face as Helen rocked her back and forth, laughing and crying in exhaustion and relief. Janet’s brow furrowed in confusion and concern and she decided to give her a few moments, stroking her face and filthy hair and murmuring soothing words.

 

 _It’s alright now…_ Helen tried to calm herself, _She’s here, she’s safe… everything’s just like I left it… she’s alright. Thank god she’s alright…_

 

The words washed through her like a cooling wave from the sea and she sank into Janet’s embrace, letting the warmth of her touch calm and soothe her until she finally sniffed and swiped at her eyes with the filthy bandage on her hand,

 

“I…” Janet caught the hand gently, “don’t think that’s a good idea, my love.” she said softly, smoothing the tears from Helen’s face.

 

“I’m alright…” Helen gulped and cleared her throat, “really.” she assured her and laughed in spite of the trembling that touched her lips, “I’m just tired.”

 

A single eyebrow rose on Janet’s forehead in mute disbelief, making Helen chuckle again, if weakly, “We’ll see…” Janet said and placed a reassuring kiss on her lips, “Let’s get you cleaned up so I can find out for myself.”

 

She helped Helen from the floor, taking silent note of how Helen held onto both her and the desk for support when she rose stiffly to her feet. She called Bigfoot on the intercom, letting him know where they were. Keeping an arm protectively around Helen’s waist, they headed into their bedroom and she shut and locked the door behind them.

 

“So…” Janet ventured as they made their way into the bathroom, “why didn’t you call and let me know you were okay and heading home?”

 

Helen sighed heavily, “Just tired I guess…” she shrugged stiffly out of her three-quarter length leather coat and Janet tossed it onto a chair in the bedroom.

 

“Wow…” Janet exclaimed softly as Helen sank onto the closed lid of the toilet and started untying her boot laces, “You certainly didn’t make any stops along the way…”

 

“I washed my face on the plane…” Helen sagged against the toilet tank and snorted, “All I wanted was to come straight home…” her voice broke and she bit her lips together in contain another flood of emotion.

 

Janet knelt to help her and did a double take when her eyes traveled up the length of her, “How did your clothes get torn?” she asked in a faint voice and her hands stilled on Helen’s booted foot.

 

Helen gazed somewhat blearily down at her torn and dirty blouse, “Oh… well…” she fumbled with the three remaining buttons on her blouse, “It’s a long story… but it’s not what you might think… _I think…”_ she said somewhat uncertainly, “I’m not even sure it really happened.”

 

Janet could feel her heart begin to pound fearfully and she finished pulling off Helen’s boots and socks and placed her hands over Helen’s, stilling them, “You’re scaring me...” she said quietly as deep velvet brown looked intently into faded tired blue.

 

A lopsided smile pulled at Helen’s lips and she slumped forward, resting her forehead on Janet’s, _“It’s okay…”_ she whispered and leaned back, wincing when she tried to shrug out of her shirt.

 

Janet stood to help her and her eyes widened when she saw the dark bruises on Helen’s upper arms and the long red angry-looking scratches that covered her arms and torso, _“My god, Helen…”_ she breathed and helped to remove the torn blouse and bra. “Enough of this now,” she clasped her face to her, “Who did this?” she forced herself to speak quietly, “Did anyone… were you…”

 

Helen’s eyes closed and she sighed again, pulling a small elegant hand to her lips and kissed the palm, “I wasn’t raped…” she assured her, “However I was scrubbed rather harshly.”

 

Janet’s brow knit in befuddlement and she turned reluctantly to draw a bath then helped Helen remove her pants and underwear while she recounted her trip. To the best of her ability, she recounted how Thiago, a researcher from the Buenos Aries sanctuary met her plane in Honduras and drove her to the 7th century tomb and waited outside while she explored a recently discovered secondary crypt still closed to the public.

 

“And then suddenly,” Helen grimaced then groaned appreciatively as she sank into the hot water, _“Dear god that hurts…”_ she hissed.

 

“Want to get out?” Janet asked worriedly, appalled by the profusion of bloody scratches covering Helen’s body and already marred back, “The skin is broken in a lot of these and you bled in some…”

 

“No it’s… it feels quite nice now… actually.” Helen closed her eyes and lay back in the tub.

 

Janet pulled the medical bag she brought in the bathroom with her and withdrew a pair of blunt-ended scissors, “You were saying?” Janet prompted her, “And then suddenly what?” she asked as she cut away the filthy strip of cloth wrapped around Helen’s hand.

 

Images of the sanctuary in ruins flooded her mind’s eye and she shuddered in the hot water, “And then I woke up here…” her eyes opened and looked beseechingly at Janet, “only here was… was…”

 

The water was tepid when Helen finally finished her story and Janet had gently cleaned the three deep lacerations on the back of her hand and examined the rest of her while she soaked her raw, aching body.

 

“It sounds completely unbelievable…” Helen mumbled quietly, “doesn’t it?”

 

Janet shook her head and pulled the plug in the drain, “It’s… well, yes,” she agreed, “It’s incredible,” she carefully clasped the freshly bandaged hand, “but clearly, Helen, it happened, you didn’t imagine it.”

 

“You believe me?” Helen asked in a tiny voice.

 

Janet’s brows arched in surprise, “Of course I do, my god, look at you… You didn’t just imagine these injuries…” She sat back on her heels and regarded her solemnly, “and while we may never discover if this mist-being is of a similar species like the light-being in Chartres I think there is one thing we _can_ take away from this so far...” Helen only looked at her and she held the bandaged hand over her heart, “This glowing mist showed you what a possible future may have held had you brought this artifact home…”

 

Helen’s eyes brimmed and her chin trembled when she turned her head away.

 

“But you _didn’t_.” she tugged lightly on her arm, “Helen, look at me…” she implored, “open your eyes, my love, and look around you….”

 

Helen obeyed, but her eyes looked only at Janet.

 

“You left it there in the being’s care and the world stayed safe… you listened and everything’s still here… isn’t it?”

 

A single tear slid down Helen’s cheek and she smiled tremulously, “Yes,” she nodded, “you’re still here.”

 

Janet’s smile broadened, “Would you like me to refill the tub so I can wash your hair or do you have enough energy to stand at the sink?”

 

~

 

After washing Helen’s hair, Janet dressed her in blue silk pajamas and tucked her into bed,

 

“I need to taste you…” Helen said sleepily and pulled at her arm.

 

Janet leaned down and placed a wet kiss in her mouth.

 

 _“Mmph…”_ Helen moaned gratefully, accepting the tongue, “That’s not what I meant…”

 

“I know what you meant…” Janet smiled and sat up, “but you need some sleep first.”

 

 _“Humph...”_ Helen groused drowsily, her eyelids drooping, “I’m fi…” she exhaled and her voice faded, only a faint, _“huh…”_ escaped her as she drifted off.

 

“You’re not fine, my love…” Janet murmured softly and placed a kiss on her brow, “But you’ll be more awake for lovemaking when you wake up and have had something to eat…” she rose from their bed, “besides me.”

 

~

 

When Helen woke several hours later, she could see Janet working in the office through the open door and she rose stiffly, feeling less achy but she was grateful the silken pajamas were forgiving on her torn and bruised skin. She pulled on the thick robe Janet left for her on the end of the bed and shuffled into the office.

 

“Hey…” Janet greeted her softly, rising from behind the desk, “ready to wake up or did I wake you?” she asked as she crossed the room and Helen could feel her eyes quietly assessing her,

 

“I feel much better…” she assured her and pulled the petite form against her for a deep kiss, “I’m sorry,” she apologized when they pulled apart, “I should have brushed my teeth first.”

 

“Don’t be ridiculous…” Janet told her sternly and pulled her down for another.

 

Helen chuckled softly and obliged her and when they pulled apart a second time Janet squeezed the hands on her waist,

 

“You must be starving… come sit and I’ll call our friend to bring you some lunch.” Keeping her arm tucked around her, she led Helen to a chair but Helen refused to let go,

 

“I am hungry,” Helen attempted to leer but she lacked the strength, “and you promised.”

 

Janet snorted in amusement and shook her head, “Alright…” she sighed expressively, “Well then, let me go lock the door for heaven sakes…” she muttered as she crossed the room to close and lock the office door.

 

Helen sat limply in the chair and admired the view; her eyes fixed on Janet’s backside as she walked away from her and swept her length when she returned.

 

“Oh my…” Janet drawled, “I know that look.”

 

“Good.” Helen’s grin was predatory as she slid from the chair and onto her knees, “If you please, then Doctor Fraiser.”

 

Janet obligingly unbuttoned and unzipped her skirt and pushed it and her panties unceremoniously to the floor. Still wearing her heels and blouse, she stepped around Helen and sat in the chair, opening her legs and draping them over the arms of the overstuffed chair.

 

Helen was speechless as Janet fully revealed herself to her and still on her knees, crawled between her legs, _“Oh Janet…”_ she whispered reverently, her hands trembling as she touched the creamy inner thighs, “I was so afraid I lost you…” her voice broke and her brimming eyes slammed shut when she felt a soft hand caress her hair. The dark pubic hair she had shaved away in Chartres was growing out and she laid her cheek on the soft mound. The caress was sacred and tender as she nuzzled the tender flesh.

 

Janet lay back in the chair and moaned, petting Helen’s hair as she inhaled her scent and sighed between her legs. She could feel a flood of wet heat trickling from deep in her center and as it emerged, her sexual scent filled Helen’s nose and her touches became increasingly amorous. Helen’s hands held her fully open and she gazed down into Janet’s open, cream-filled opening. She lowered her head and dipped the tip of her tongue into the molten pool, licking away the precious salt sweet nectar,

 

 _Now I can breathe…_ she thought dizzily as she feasted on the wealth, smiling unconsciously at Janet’s gasps and cries; _Now I can live…._ She extended her tongue inside as far as it would go, thrusting lustily several times before withdrawing to lave the petite length from perineum to throbbing clit. She strayed over the inner folds, suckling the fluttering rigid structures in her mouth before thrusting in the molten depths once again.

 

Janet panted breathlessly as she watched Helen’s bobbing head between her legs. She could have stayed like this all day, with her legs spread and draped over the arms of the chair while Helen ate her; but she was concerned by her weak, whimpering cries and how she slumped so tiredly against her flesh. She decided to hurry things along and began fingering her own clit. Rubbing furiously, she hurried the approaching orgasm and pulled Helen’s face further against her flesh, positioning her open mouth over her urethra.

 

“I’m coming baby…” she grunted. Groaning and crying out she climaxed, pinching and squeezing her clit hard she ejaculated in Helen’s mouth and a sob broke from her when she heard and felt Helen gulping and swallowing the small explosions of the clear sugary cum.

 

Helen was unaware of the tears that squeezed from her eyes as she fed, and she moaned into the convulsing flesh as she drank from Janet’s body. _Thank you…_ she whispered silently, _dear god thank you thank you thank you…._

 

Janet arched and shook rigidly in the chair, finally letting her eyes squeeze tightly shut as the waves of pleasure shook her for long minutes before fading away. Breathless, she slid her legs from the arms of the chair and rolled forward, clasping Helen’s face in her hands and kissed her deeply, moaning when she tasted herself on Helen’s tongue.

 

“Thank you...” she said simply.

 

“I love you.” Helen answered and Janet’s smile was brilliant,

 

“I love you too.”

 

~

 

Janet had gone to help settle the sanctuary for the night and Helen sat at the desk, still attired in her silk pajamas and robe, determined to help with the day’s paperwork when Will knocked on the open door and walked in,

 

“Busted.” he declared.

 

“Beg pardon?” Helen looked up from the invoice in her hand.

 

“Are you supposed to be out of bed?”

 

“I don’t see why not,” she shrugged and returned to the invoice, “especially since I spent most of the day there.”

 

“Fine,” he grinned, stuffing his hands into his pockets, “I’m tellin’ Janet...”

 

Helen snorted in amusement and slipped the page back into the file she pulled it from, “There,” she said, “satisfied?”

 

His smile broadened as he regarded her, “So… how was the safari?”

“Safaris are in Africa.”

“Okay,” he conceded, “then the, uh...” he arched his brows expressively and struck a pose, “jungle hunt for the tomb of the Mayan king.” he said teasingly, thrusting his jaw and sounding like Sean Connery, making her smile. “Which, when you think about it,” he added, returning to his own voice, “sounds like a bad cable special, doesn't it?”

 

“Which is why I went alone;” she teased back, “to avoid the mockery.”

“Ah, good plan. So,” he shrugged, “did you find it or what?”

“The tomb?” Helen shook her head, “No, no, I didn't.”

“Really?” his brows arched in honest surprise, “You did a lot of research… it's not like you to strike out like that.”

“There was _nothing_ to be found in that second tomb;” she shrugged in feigned exasperation, “came up empty, not even a whiff. We'll just call the trip a massive tax write-off.”

“Jeez,” he chuckled, “You're totally pissed, aren't you, that you came up empty.”

She shrugged again expressively, “Absolutely furious…”

“Come on,” he chided, “these things happen for a reason, right?” he turned and headed for the door, “And anyway,” he shrugged one-sided as he sauntered, “you got back in time for a beautiful day, even though you slept through most of it,” he turned, giving her a sly teasing smile, “and it should be another beautiful day tomorrow….” Janet walked in and he gave her a slight bow as he left, “Doctor Fraiser, good night…”

 

“Doctor Zimmerman,” she grinned, “good night…” and shut the door behind him.

Helen smiled and rose from the desk, holding out her arm and draping it around Janet’s shoulders when she pressed close.

 

“Ready for bed?” Janet asked, squeezing the arm she wrapped around her waist.

 

“Absolutely...” Helen assured her and Janet noted the dark glint in her eye,

 

“Are you sure?” she asked, “I know you slept a lot today, but...”

 

“Oh yes...” Helen grinned unrepentantly and closed and locked their bedroom door.

 

“Alright then…” Janet’s grin was lopsided as she grasped the tie on Helen’s robe and pulled her forward, untying it and pushing it open. She stepped close and Helen clasped the sweet face in her hands and pressed their lips together, their tongues entwining.

 

Helen groaned in appreciation and rising ardor and she whimpered when Janet pushed her silken pajama bottoms down over her hips and felt them pool around her ankles. She offered no resistance when Janet pushed her backwards until she sat in an overstuffed chair that matched the one in their office. She spread her legs in helpful imitation of Janet from earlier in the day and Janet assisted in draping the long shapely limbs over the cushioned arms.

 

Janet swallowed the lump from her throat at the sight of the raw scratches and deep bruising that covered Helen’s body and instead focused on the heavy musky scent that emanated from Helen’s center and felt her mouth water in anticipation. She slid her hands under Helen’s thighs and nuzzled the soft dark blond briefly before tracing the tip of her tongue over the already swollen structure of Helen’s wide dome-shaped clitoris. She drew her tongue around the base and suckled the rounded protrusion, scraping the hypersensitized flesh with the edge of her teeth and smiled when she heard Helen’s gasp and groan of pleasure. Still suckling, she slid her lips down and over the folds, suckling first one then the other until she could wait no longer and lapped at the thick cream that flooded Helen’s center and gulped as she fed, grunting in effort and satisfaction while Helen twisted and trembled and writhed and moaned in the chair.

 

Janet feasted, licking and laving and sucking the thick salty ambrosia in her mouth and finally slid two fingers inside and rubbed the pebbled patch within. Helen responded by arching stiffly in the chair and Janet quickly added a third, rubbing the urethral sponge and pumping her fingers hard as Helen’s orgasm approached. She sucked the large clit deep in her mouth, suckling hard with her tongue in tandem with her thrusting fingers until Helen’s body shook rigidly and she cried out as she climaxed. Janet cupped her hand over the explosions of ejaculate, catching them in her palm for later consumption and rode out the orgasm for as long as Helen could stand it.

 

Helen panted and gasped and cried softly as the deep aching waves of orgasmic pleasure shook her to her core. Tears streamed down her face and she grunted and moaned with each spurt of ejaculate that exploded in Janet’s firmly attached mouth. The orgasm held her in its sway for long minutes and she surrendered utterly, her body trembling and writhing and jerking uncontrollably until she sagged limply in the chair and sobbed weakly.

 

Janet slowed her fingers and feasting lips and tongue then slid her fingers free and licked the tender quivering flesh between Helen’s legs clean, her caresses soothing while Helen wept. She kissed her way up the scraped and bruised torso, stopping to lick and suckle Helen’s nipples until she could place a tender kiss on her lips.

 

Helen’s face was tearstained and she thrust her tongue in Janet’s mouth, fresh tears streaming down her face when she tasted her cum and ejaculate on Janet’s tongue. They kissed for long minutes until Janet pulled away, smiling,

 

“Time for bed?”

 

Helen smiled and placed another, rather chaste kiss on her lips, “Yes…” she agreed, “time for bed.”

 

Janet helped her from the chair and they shed their remaining garments and slid under the covers. Helen pulled the petite form into her arms and Janet clasped her head to her chest, content to entwine her fingers in the freshly shampooed locks since Helen’s scarred back was so raw from the scouring she endured.

 

“Will you sleep tonight?” Janet asked, “Or should I get you something?”

 

“Oh I will definitely sleep well tonight...” Helen assured her, smiling at the feel of Janet’s warm skin pressed against hers. “Will says it’s going to be a beautiful day tomorrow.”

 

“I’m sure it will be…” Janet said softly, closing her eyes.

 

Several minutes passed until Janet asked, “Are you still awake?”

 

“I’m just thinking…” Helen whispered.

 

Janet’s eyes opened in the dark, “About?”

 

Helen sighed, “All my life I’ve believed the future is not set, that there’s no fate but what we make for ourselves.”

 

“And?”

 

“I don’t know…” Helen sighed, “It’s just…”

 

“Ah…” Janet’s smile was soft and she rose onto an elbow, “This is disconcerting for you because this mist-being tread on something that is more my territory than yours…” she chuckled softly and placed a quick kiss on Helen’s brow. “Are there such things are coincidences? Do things happen for a reason…”

 

“Which I’ve always said was preposterous.”

 

“Mmm,” Janet sighed, “yes…” and placed another kiss on her brow, “you’re so fortunate you share a bed with someone so tolerant.”

 

Helen retuned the kiss, this time on Janet’s lips, “Sorry…” she muttered apologetically, running her unencumbered hand over Janet’s flat belly and up and over her breasts.

 

The smile returned to Janet’s face, and she sighed at the caress, “And in this case both the light-being in Chartres and the mist-being in Honduras prove both our points quite well…” Helen shifted her head back on the pillow and Janet could see her eyes widen in surprise,

 

“Oh really?”

 

“Because you’re right, my love, the future is not set, and sometimes the future can be a bright and happy one if we allow others to help us along the way… even if they planned for it to happen the way that it does… for that very reason.” Helen looked speechless and Janet smiled, “That particular thought hadn’t occurred to you had it?” she teased lightly.

 

Helen only shook her head and Janet continued, “The window cleaner that sits high on scaffolding on the side of a skyscraper has a much farther view than those of us standing on the sidewalk....  Just because this avenue of investigation turned out the way it did I do not think we should stop looking for ways to reintroduce you to the aging process.” She pulled the bandage hand between her breasts, “I know you want to grow old with me, Helen, I want that too because when this life is over at some point I do want to spend eternity with you…”

 

 _“I want that so much.”_ Helen whispered fervently.

 

“Then perhaps we should look at this experience you had in Pacal’s tomb as being instructive in more than just the one lesson…”

 

“Like what?”

 

“Like maybe we should look at why the substance in that jar affected your immunoglobulin the way it did…” she sensed Helen’s objections and stopped her, “I know…” she assured her, “not experientially _of course_ , but if we branch off that, where could we look next? Perhaps we should consider the issue of changing your immunoglobulin as a detour sign that is now steering us in a more productive direction. Maybe the mist-being not only saved you and the world but has saved us time in making us look actively at other avenues of investigation?”

 

“Well…” Helen finally conceded, “That’s true enough, given the basic properties of the source blood I likely never would have considered anything else.”

 

“There, you see?” Janet shifted the bandaged hand to cover her exposed breast, “We’re both right; the future is not set, and everything happens for a reason.” She leaned to place a kiss on Helen’s lips then settled close against her, “It’s very Forrest Gumpian…”

 

Helen snorted, grinning in the dark, “How?”

 

“Because life is at once destined and accidental-like…”

 

“Ah…” Helen smiled and rolled on top of her, pressing her length along Janet’s, “all this philosophy is making me rather moist.”

 

Janet’s pupils dilated even further in arousal in the dark, “When you’re in the mood it doesn’t take much to make you wet.” Janet purred silkily, making Helen snicker as she pressed her mouth on hers.

 

They kissed for long minutes until both women realized they were grinding wantonly against one another and Helen slid a well-toned thigh between Janet’s legs. Straddling Janet’s slender limb she balanced her weight on her elbows and began undulating on Janet’s thigh. Both women moaned and whimpered at the feel of Helen’s cum slicking Janet’s heated skin and Helen settled against her as she wetly humped her, simultaneously thrusting her knee between Janet’s legs and banging into her flooded center and throbbing clit.

 

Helen shifted her weight onto her left side and grasped Janet’s nipple in her right hand, pinching and twisting and squeezing the hardened structure and Janet did the same to hers. They thrust and undulated and rubbed wetly together, and as their cries grew in intensity their grinding undulations and squeezing twisting fingers gripped and pulled even harder until they both stiffened in the bed, jerking and trembling as the simultaneous orgasms crashed over them both. They cried out as they convulsed and quaked against one another, the feel of the other’s orgasm intensifying and prolonging their climaxes for long minutes.

 

Spent, Helen rolled onto her side, still clutching Janet to her, unwilling to let go, _“You okay?”_ she mumbled, still breathless.

 

 _“Always…”_ Janet panted.

 

Helen nodded in the dark, _“Alright… I hope you can sleep like this…”_ she whispered, feeling more content than she had since their trip to Chartres.

 

 _“For the rest of my life...”_ Janet whispered back, nuzzling Helen’s breasts until her questing lips and nose strayed over a still erect nipple and she drew it in her mouth, content to suckle until she fell asleep.


End file.
